Time
10-15 minutes
Frequency
Weekly
Material
Talking piece
Purpose
To help students identify important aspects of themselves, practice sharing parts of their identity with classmates and see the value in uniqueness and diversity
- Provide context for the practice (see “Evidence” section).
- Establish ground rules for the conversation (e.g., “elevator speech” speed, no interrupting, etc.). Refer to the “Active constructive listening” practice.
- Students share something about themselves.
- Select students (a few per week) to bring an item to share with the class about themselves. They may instead choose to tell a story or say something they feel happy about.
NOTE: Co-creating classroom norms of inclusion, respect for diversity, compassion, and collaboration will help create discussions with a positive and safe emotional climate. To ensure respectful dialogue, norms must be co-created before the practice, and students can be reminded of them throughout.
Complementary practice: Active constructive listening (Healthy relationship skills)
Weekly items/stories could be theme based (e.g., favourite songs, what they are grateful for, etc.).
Relationship skills start developing very early in life and continually develop throughout the school years (Bergin & Bergin, 2009). Students and staff benefit from being known which supports a sense of belonging at school and assurance that one matters (Bergin & Bergin, 2009), both of which cultivate teacher-student and peer relationships (Verschueren & Koomen, 2012). Also, students being known, understood and cared for by educators and peers supports their development of key relationship building skills needed for lifelong social success (Verschueren & Koomen, 2012; Bergin & Bergin, 2009).
Bergin, C., & Bergin, D. (2009). Attachment in the classroom. Educational Psychology Review, 21(2), 141-170.
Verschueren, K., & Koomen, H. M. (2012). Teacher–child relationships from an attachment perspective. Attachment & human development, 14(3), 205-211.
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